


Coming Up Aces

by greenbergsays



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Character, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pansexual Character, Relationship Discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 19:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5177270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbergsays/pseuds/greenbergsays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky Barnes is a charismatic, flirty asexual man that lives with his awkward pansexual best friend, Steve Rogers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Up Aces

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this Tumblr prompt: "Have you seen the post suggesting a sitcom of asexual and pansexual roommates called All or Nothing? I think it ties in so well with modern!AU charismatic ace Bucky Barnes and can't-get-a-date stammering pan Steve Rogers."
> 
> Thank you to the wonderful [Medie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie) for her input on this ficlet and for coming up with the name _Coming Up Aces_ , which I am just in love with tbh.
> 
> Here's the rundown for everyone: Bucky is a sex-positive asexual. Bruce is a sex-negative asexual. Pepper is aromantic. Natasha is demi. Tony and Steve are both bi/pan.

Steve was moping.

He was grown up enough to admit it. There was no need to deny it, anyways, not with the picture he made. Sat on their ratty old couch, wrapped up in the blanket that Bucky’s mother had knitted for Christmas, eating his favorite ice cream; mint chocolate chip.

A movie played on the television but he had no idea what it was. The volume was too low to catch any dialogue and anyways, he was far too preoccupied to pay attention. Instead, he let it play in the background as he replayed his night over and over again in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became and the more he drowned his sorrows in the ice cream.

It wasn’t a date. It could never be considered a date, no matter what Sam said.  

Through the haze of his own pity party, Steve heard the muffled sound of a key in the door. The lock clicked and then the door open, Bucky’s voice calling from what counted as their foyer:

“I’m home!”

Steve thought about trying to ditch the blanket and the ice cream. He thought, very seriously, about pretending that nothing was wrong and then he decided that he didn’t want to. He wanted to mope and he wanted Bucky’s comfort.

In the other room, he heard Bucky drop his keys in the glass bowl by the door. There was a pause in sound and movement, during which Steve knew Bucky was hanging up his jacket and toeing off his shoes to leave them in the hall. It was the same routine, every night, and Steve could play it all in his head, reciting Bucky’s actions down to the second.

He was fully prepared for the moment that Bucky came around the corner but he wasn’t so prepared to see Bucky in a pensive mood of his own. There was something on his mind, too. It was far too easy to see it on such an expressive face; the attractive pout of his mouth pulled down in a frown, his stubbled jaw clenched, dark eyebrows knitted together.

When he looked up and saw Steve, the lines of his face only became deeper.

“What’s the matter?” He asked, stepping forward to flop down next to Steve on the couch. It gave a protesting groan.

Lifting up the corner of the blanket, Bucky scooted closer until they were pressed together, from their hips down to their knees knocking together, their feet nudging each other. Bucky spread his arm over the back of the couch and leaned back. Steve had to turn his torso to be able to see his face.

“Date not go well?”

Before he could think better of it, Steve said, “She thought it was gonna be you.”

Bucky tensed. “ _What?_ ” He asked, outraged, sitting up immediately from his relaxed position.

“It’s fine,” Steve said, trying to push him back down but Bucky was much bigger and stronger than he was.

“It is _not_ fuckin’ fine, Stevie,” Bucky replied vehemently. “What the fuck?”

“When Sam said he was bringing a friend, he apparently didn’t specify,” Steve explained quietly. “And his date’s friend…thought it was going to be you. Or _hoped_ it would be you, I guess. I was nervous enough to begin with, y’know? And after that, I just couldn’t seem to stop makin’ an idiot out of myself.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Bucky said immediately. “ _They_ are, not bein’ able to see what a great catch you are. Why the hell would they think that, anyways? I don’t _date_.”

Steve shrugged. “I know,” he said simply.

Everyone knew.

Bucky was the most shameless flirt at their college, the most charming guy in their neighborhood. It didn’t matter where they were, he was always the most wanted person in the room. He had an easy smile and gorgeous laugh, the kind of charismatic personality that drew people in by the dozens. Everyone wanted to be the one on Bucky Barnes’ arm, they all wanted a chance at taking him home.

But they always walked away disappointed and Bucky always came home alone. He had the reputation of an insatiable bachelor when it couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Bucky had always found it easier to stay single than explain his sexual identity to potential partners. After all, most of the world still denied that asexuality was a real and valid orientation.

“I’m gonna kill Sam,” Bucky said decisively and that expressive face of his held the truth of those words. “I can’t believe he’d do somethin’ like that to you.”

“No, leave it. It’s nothing.”

Steve shook his head, pushing Bucky back again, and this time, Bucky went. But he pulled Steve with him, until he was half on Bucky’s lap and resting against his chest; Steve allowed it, grateful for the comfort.

“Don’t wanna talk about it anymore,” he said, closing his eyes as he listened to Bucky’s heartbeat. “How did the meeting go?”

Friday nights might have been reserved for Steve failing at having either a romantic or sexual life but they were also the chosen nights for Coming Up Aces; an asexual/aromantic support group that met bi-monthly and whose meetings Bucky attended faithfully.

Bucky sighed and when Steve looked up, it was to see him staring at the ceiling with that pensive expression again.

“Bruce told me that I don’t need to conform to sexual standards,” he said tiredly. “That I shouldn’t feel the need to have sex with someone just because they’re interested and that even if I _did_ enter into a romantic relationship with a sexual person, I’m not obligated to give them sex.”

Blowing out a breath of his own, Steve scooped out a spoonful of ice cream and nudged Bucky with his elbow to gain his attention. Bucky leaned forward to take the bite, humming his appreciation.

“And what do you think about that?” Steve asked as he took a bite of his own.

“I think,” said Bucky, “that he and Tony had another discussion that devolved into an argument. They’re probably still not speaking to each other, Tony’s probably still in Pepper’s bed, sleeping off their sex marathon, and Bruce is irritable because he misses him.”

Steve snorted. “Sounds about right.”

The relationship between Bruce, Tony, and Pepper was simple enough in theory but in practice, anything that involved Tony Stark became wrought with complication and drama.

Bruce and Tony were two smitten science nerds but Tony was a free love bisexual and Bruce was an asexual that had no interest in letting Tony’s hands wander below the belt. Pepper was close friends with both of them but uninterested in romantic entanglements.

She and Tony had sex for fun, with Bruce’s full consent, and while it seemed unorthodox, it worked out well for all involved. _Most_ of the time; sometimes Tony couldn’t stop himself from being _Tony_ and it usually ended in an argument that lasted anywhere from a few hours to a few days _,_ depending on what the tiff was about and who it was with.

If it was with Bruce and it happened around an Ace meeting, Bruce was usually overly aggressive and angry the whole meeting. It had happened enough times that everyone knew the pattern by now; even Steve, who'd never been to one of Bucky's meetings but still heard all about them afterwards.

“He’s right, though,” Steve said. He leaned forward to put the melting ice cream on their lopsided coffee table and then laid back down on Bucky’s chest. “It’s okay to not have sex. Just because someone’s sexually attracted to you, doesn’t mean you have to give it to them.”

“Aw, Stevie,” Bucky wrinkled his nose. “‘s not about that.”

“Then what _is_ it about?”

“I like the idea of it,” he answered. His hand came up to rest over Steve’s, their fingers intertwining; the kind of casual intimacy that came from years and years of friendship. “Of being inside someone or having them inside me. Foolin’ around in bed. It’s not…I mean, the sex doesn’t matter. I don’t care about that. But it’s _intimate_. To share something like that. And I like that. I’d be getting to see a side of them that not everyone gets to see, y’know? I don’t think I’d mind doing it, because of that.”

Steve hummed his acknowledgement, pondering this answer. He thought he understood. Bucky cared about what sex offered him emotionally.

“What brought it up, anyways?” He asked after a moment.

“Hm?”

Bucky looked down at him, raising an eyebrow.

“The topic,” Steve clarified. “What were you guys talking about that made Bruce start in on your potential partners? You got a secret someone hidden away that you haven’t told me about?”

It was a comment made in jest but Bucky didn’t laugh. In fact, there wasn’t an immediate answer at all. Bucky let his head fall back with a soft _thump_ and he stared at the ceiling again, his mouth pressed together firmly in such a way that Steve thought there would _be_ no answer. But then finally, he spoke.

“There’s someone,” he said without looking at Steve. “They don’t know. But I’ve been thinkin’ about it. Askin’ for a date. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve been worryin’ about, though, and I just…decided to talk about it tonight. See what everyone else said.”

Steve swallowed roughly, trying to ignore the rapid, panicked beat of his heart and hoping his voice didn’t betray that sinking feeling in his stomach.

Thankfully, it came out steady when he asked, “What’d they say?”

“Natasha told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was an idiot,” Bucky told him, his lips quirking fondly. Steve couldn’t help but mirror the gesture; they both loved Natasha dearly. “And that I should stop worrying about _what ifs_ and just do it before someone else opened their eyes and saw what I did.”

If Natasha said something like that, it meant she knew whoever it was personally and that she approved. Steve didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse.

“Do I know them?”

Bucky looked down at him finally and smiled.

The two of them had been friends since elementary school and in all the years they’d known each other, Steve had seen every sort of smile on Bucky’s face. The one on his face now was unfamiliar and it felt somehow _wrong_. Like there was a joke Steve wasn’t in on but it was one that Bucky didn’t like.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I think you’ve met.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on [Tumblr](greenbersays.tumblr.com) if you're so inclined! :) I love talking about these nerds in just about any universe and I'm always up for new prompts. ^____^
> 
> Bucky's thoughts on sex are actually taken from my own real life thoughts and feelings, although I'm no where near as comfortable or charismatic as he is. So there's that.


End file.
